I was saddened to hear of Bob's death. I have several fond memories of him,
my favorite being the following:
I was returning from Germany via PanAm, and due to their incompetence, it was
a horribly delayed flight. We spent something like 10 hours in the airport,
and several of us spent the time bench racing. As it turned out, Bob Wollek,
Stefan Johannsen and another driver were across the aisle from me when we
finally got on a 747 that looked like it had recently been strafed. Stefan
was not feeling well, and part way into the flight he pulled his blanket up
around his neck and had his PanAm provided air tube headphones in his ears.
Bob was seated directly in front of him, and turned around to me and made a
motion asking if it looked like Stefan was asleep. It did, and I nodded. He
sneaked around and unplugged Stefan's airphones and blew into them, making a
sort of, well, "low pitched flatulent" sound if you get my drift... Stefan
must have shot 6" up in his seat, eyes wide open. We were all (except for
Stefan, of course) laughing, but Bob was slapping his knee, laughing until
the tears ran down his cheeks, much amused and damn proud of himself! Due to
PanAm, the trio got to Sebring almost a full day late, and had no qualifying
time. They started the 1984 12 Hours of Sebring from the back of the field,
but went on to win the race!
About 4 years later, several of us had lunch with Bob in a BFG hospitality
tent at Sears Point, and I told the story. Bob denied the story, right up
until the point where he could no longer contain himself, and burst out
laughing all over again. Several hours later I was much relieved to see him
get out of a totaled Porsche after rolling it at speed going up the hill
after the start/finish line after a right rear tire let go.
I'll miss Bob Wollek.
Charlie Davis
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